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Review
Praise for Shatter the Bones:
‘It’s gripping and gritty … the tension builds layer on layer’ Express
‘MacBride at his best’ Northern Echo
Praise for Stuart MacBride:
‘MacBride is a damned fine writer – no one does dark and gritty like him’ Peter James
‘Fierce, unflinching and shot through with the blackest of humour; this is crime fiction of the highest order’ Mark Billingham
‘Ferocious and funny, this is Tartan Noir at its best’ Val McDermid
Review
Praise for Stuart MacBride: 'Hurray for a new McRae' Sun 'A terrific writer ! bodies abound, blood flows freely and McRae is a delight' The Times 'Some of the grittiest crime-writing in the field ! etched in the darkest of hues and with dialogue so sharp you might cut yourself' Independent 'Hard-hitting prose with a bone-dry humour and characters you can genuinely believe in, Stuart MacBride's Logan McRae series of novels are a real treat' Simon Kernick 'Fierce, unflinching and shot through with the blackest of humour; this is crime fiction of the highest order by a writer whose dark star is most definitely on the rise' Mark Billingham 'If you're looking for taut narrative, gut-churning incident, strong characterisation ! then look no further' Reginald Hill 'Ferocious and funny' Val McDermid 'Riveting and gruesome' Daily Telegraph 'Tartan noir's greatest exponent' Daily Mirror 'Hurray for a new McRae' Sun 'A terrific writer ! McRae makes John Rebus seem like a compliant wimp ! bodies abound, blood flows freely and McRae is a delight' The Times 'One of the most disturbing and uncompromising novels in the highly successful Logan McRae series ! admirers of tough, modern crime novels will be in seventh heaven -- or should that be hell?' Express 'Some of the grittiest crime-writing in the field ! The McRae books sport some of the pithiest snapshots of urban life this side of Irvine Welsh ! etched in the darkest of hues and with dialogue so sharp you might cut yourself' Independent 'Another brilliant, riveting police procedural. I'm green with envy!' R D Wingfield 'Stuart MacBride goes straight for the jugular with a tight, thrilling novel' Glasgow Herald 'This intelligent, exciting police procedural should make the leading writers of the genre start looking over their shoulders' Sunday Telegraph 'An impressive debut ! an edge-of-your-seat page-turner' Publishers Weekly 'A gritty, roller-coaster, in-your-face thriller' Aberdeen Press and Journal 'A cracking new writer on the crime scene who hooks you from the first page and never lets you go. The action is ferocious and the pace unrelenting' Northern Echo 'Compelling reading' Telegraph 'Gripping' Daily Mirror
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
I had thought last couple of books in Logan Macrae series were slightly off-the-boil (although still good), but this one was back on form. Unremittingly bleak, but full of brilliant one-liners. As an exiled Aberdonian, the language used by the characters and the geography of the book really felt like being at home. My review is of the EXCELLENT audio CD version read by Steve Worsley- a return to the quality of the first 3 books read by John Sessions (the author made a decent fist of books 5 and 6, but book 4's reader was pretty poor). Anyway, can recommend this to liven up long and short car journeys - just don't listen to it with the windows down - you'll get raised eyebrows either because people will be horrified by what they are hearing, or bemused at why you're shouting with laughter at the latest pearl from Steele or Biohazard. Keep up the good work Stuart - and bring them all back to us soon.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Back on track
17 Mar 2011
Aberdeen is the setting for this tale about the kidnapping of rising talent show stars Alison & her daughter Jenny McGregor. The investigation by DS Logan McRae and his colleagues at Grampian Police takes twists and turns as the media and the public demand action. The public attempt to raise the ransom while the race is on to beat deadlines laid down by the kidnappers.
I have to say I have read all of Stuart MacBride's books since his debut novel 'Cold Granite' which also featured Logan McRae, so had pre-ordered 'Shatter the Bones'. This was the 7th book in the series.
I have to be honest and state I had in fact approached this latest book with a certain amount of trepidation - having thoroughly enjoyed a number of the previous books by the author, I had felt he had gone off track a little and the levels of profanity seemed to go off the scale.
He is certainly back on track with this book. I read it in one day and couldn't put it down. A gripping tale interlaced with humour giving an unusual mix.
If you haven't read any Stuart MacBride novels before and enjoy a good police/thriller read - buy this, you won't be disappointed.
I have to say I have read all of Stuart MacBride's books since his debut novel 'Cold Granite' which also featured Logan McRae, so had pre-ordered 'Shatter the Bones'. This was the 7th book in the series.
I have to be honest and state I had in fact approached this latest book with a certain amount of trepidation - having thoroughly enjoyed a number of the previous books by the author, I had felt he had gone off track a little and the levels of profanity seemed to go off the scale.
He is certainly back on track with this book. I read it in one day and couldn't put it down. A gripping tale interlaced with humour giving an unusual mix.
If you haven't read any Stuart MacBride novels before and enjoy a good police/thriller read - buy this, you won't be disappointed.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
The price of blatant self promotion
16 May 2011
SHATTER THE BONES is the seventh book in the Detective Inspector Logan McRae series. Set in Aberdeen, the stories are permeated with the problems that a bad economy dumps on the locals. The one bright spot around which all of Aberdeen gathers is the telecasts of a major reality show: Britain's Next Big Star. This most recent round of the show has reached the semi-finals and Aberdeen is as one in the collective excitement surrounding local stars, Alison and Jenny McGregor. The mother/daughter singing duo have a very good chance of winning the big prize, a recording contract and millions of pounds in endorsements of products that the British public will gladly purchase in order to own a piece of the famous.
Alison McGregor and her six year-old daughter are on the covers of every tabloid in Britain. Their version of Wind Beneath My Wings has had millions of hits on YouTube. Scotland is proud and happy and positive that the McGregors are going to bring everything good to Aberdeen until Alison and Jenny disappear and a ransom demand is made. If the ransom is not paid, the kidnappers will begin leaving pieces of Jenny for the police to find. The British viewing public rushes to contribute money but the police aren't sure how real the kidnapping is. The producer of Britain's Next Big Star is in a position to get his hands on the donations but the general public is convinced of the dangerous position their heroines are in and with shrines, tribute programs, and vigils, the McGregors, and the show, are getting more publicity than anyone could have dreamed of.
McRae is also caught up in a serious drug trafficking investigation. The McGregors might have a way out of poverty, if they survive, but there are those in Aberdeen who get rich selling drugs to the poor and unemployed who buy those drugs to forget the circumstances of their own lives. It is that investigation that leads Logan to a place from which he fears he can't return.
Stuart Macbride writes 400 page books that need to be finished in a day. Logan McRae's nickname is "Laz" and those who have read the series from the beginning understand why he has the name and why it is so appropriate. All the McRae books are violent; hero or villain, inflicting severe harm seems the answer to most problems. Yet, McRae is a hero, a man who knows that his role as a police officer is one that brings good to people who have little that is good in their lives. This does not keep him from thinking, frequently, that he should leave the job but he doesn't know what he would do if he no longer carries a badge.
McRae is one of the few who doesn't forget that there is a little girl at the center of the crime, a little girl who is being terrorized by people she does not know for a reason she cannot understand. To give any detail of the story is to spoil SHATTER THE BONES. The series is best read in order, beginning with COLD GRANITE, and it is a series that can be enjoyed by most whose taste runs to police procedurals. Brutal details and profane language can be skipped to get to the good part.
Macbride has a sense of humor that takes aim at parents. The name of the production company responsible for Britain's Next Big Star is an homage to Dr. Seuss.
Alison McGregor and her six year-old daughter are on the covers of every tabloid in Britain. Their version of Wind Beneath My Wings has had millions of hits on YouTube. Scotland is proud and happy and positive that the McGregors are going to bring everything good to Aberdeen until Alison and Jenny disappear and a ransom demand is made. If the ransom is not paid, the kidnappers will begin leaving pieces of Jenny for the police to find. The British viewing public rushes to contribute money but the police aren't sure how real the kidnapping is. The producer of Britain's Next Big Star is in a position to get his hands on the donations but the general public is convinced of the dangerous position their heroines are in and with shrines, tribute programs, and vigils, the McGregors, and the show, are getting more publicity than anyone could have dreamed of.
McRae is also caught up in a serious drug trafficking investigation. The McGregors might have a way out of poverty, if they survive, but there are those in Aberdeen who get rich selling drugs to the poor and unemployed who buy those drugs to forget the circumstances of their own lives. It is that investigation that leads Logan to a place from which he fears he can't return.
Stuart Macbride writes 400 page books that need to be finished in a day. Logan McRae's nickname is "Laz" and those who have read the series from the beginning understand why he has the name and why it is so appropriate. All the McRae books are violent; hero or villain, inflicting severe harm seems the answer to most problems. Yet, McRae is a hero, a man who knows that his role as a police officer is one that brings good to people who have little that is good in their lives. This does not keep him from thinking, frequently, that he should leave the job but he doesn't know what he would do if he no longer carries a badge.
McRae is one of the few who doesn't forget that there is a little girl at the center of the crime, a little girl who is being terrorized by people she does not know for a reason she cannot understand. To give any detail of the story is to spoil SHATTER THE BONES. The series is best read in order, beginning with COLD GRANITE, and it is a series that can be enjoyed by most whose taste runs to police procedurals. Brutal details and profane language can be skipped to get to the good part.
Macbride has a sense of humor that takes aim at parents. The name of the production company responsible for Britain's Next Big Star is an homage to Dr. Seuss.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Shatter the Bones
1 July 2011
Alison McGregor and her six-year-old daughter, Jenny, Aberdeen's huge favorites to win the competition on the hit tv show Britain's Next Big Star, have made it to the semi-finals. Suddenly they are kidnapped, and the ransom note soon received says they will be killed if an indeterminate ransom is not paid within fourteen days. Contributions are made across the country from their millions of fans. The police are stymied - there are no witnesses, and no trace of forensic evidence can be found on either the ransom notes or the gruesome videos which the police are examining, and there are absolutely no clues as to who is behind the crime. Needless to say, the media, and the public, are in an uproar, and the detectives are being hounded by both, as well as by the head of the CID and other investigative agencies.
There is a second story line dealing with a routine drug bust which goes seriously awry, with the drug dealer managing to escape despite handcuffs and the presence of numerous police officers designed to prevent just that from happening. The ramifications of this are far-reaching and brutal, and very personal for DS Logan McRae.
This latest entry in this wonderful series moves at a slower pace than I remembered the earlier books being, perhaps reflective of the actual way in which serious crime investigations happen in real life. But trust me, by the time the reader approaches the wrap-up of this well-written tale of celebrity culture run amok, the reader will be turning the pages swiftly to reach the suspense-filled ending as time is running out and the deadline approaches.
Logan McRae, his significant other, Samantha, and the cops on the Grampian Police force who readers have met in the earlier books are wonderfully well drawn. McRae is a very human and believable protagonist, and I can't wait for his return in the next series entry. Highly recommended.
There is a second story line dealing with a routine drug bust which goes seriously awry, with the drug dealer managing to escape despite handcuffs and the presence of numerous police officers designed to prevent just that from happening. The ramifications of this are far-reaching and brutal, and very personal for DS Logan McRae.
This latest entry in this wonderful series moves at a slower pace than I remembered the earlier books being, perhaps reflective of the actual way in which serious crime investigations happen in real life. But trust me, by the time the reader approaches the wrap-up of this well-written tale of celebrity culture run amok, the reader will be turning the pages swiftly to reach the suspense-filled ending as time is running out and the deadline approaches.
Logan McRae, his significant other, Samantha, and the cops on the Grampian Police force who readers have met in the earlier books are wonderfully well drawn. McRae is a very human and believable protagonist, and I can't wait for his return in the next series entry. Highly recommended.
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